Miss Venezuela and Miss Universe

Dayana
beat 27 other candidates to win Miss
Venezuela 2007 on September 13, 2007, and became only the
second woman representing the Amazonas state to win (the first being Carolina Izsak in 1991).She was crowned Miss
Universe 2008 at the pageant in the Crown
Convention Center, Nha
Trang, Vietnam on July 13,
2008. Mendoza became the first winner of the pageant from
Venezuela since Miss Universe 1996's winner Alicia Machado, thus making her the first
Venezuelan Miss Universe in the 21st century.

Miss Universe 2007Riyo Mori crowned her with a tiara worth 120,000 U.S.
dollars. Her prize package includes cash, a year
contract promoting Miss Universe, world travel, a rent-free,
prestigious New York City flat, luxury apartment and a gift bag
stuffed with designer shoes, dresses and beauty products, a
$100,000 stipend for a 2-year course at the
New York Film
Academy and free access to famous fashion houses and beauty
parlors. Mendoza will spend her year-long reign traveling
the world to lecture on humanitarian issues and to promote
education regarding HIV/AIDS.

Controversies

Modeling photos

Mendoza was caught in a nude scandal after photos of her modeling
naked for a jewelry firm surfaced. Officials from the Miss Universe Organization
decided against penalizing her, saying that the candid photos were
not pornographic, but instead were "artistic in nature, and they
don't have an ounce of pornographic content to them."

Guantanamo Bay visit

On 27
March 2009, Mendoza documented a visit to Guantanamo Bay
detention camp on her internet blog. In
it, she was quoted as saying "[Guantanamo] was such a relaxing
place, so calm and beautiful". She also stated that when she
visited the detainees camps, "...we saw the jails, where they
shower, how the recreate themselves with movies, classes of art,
books.It was very interesting". This led to massive
condemnation across the internet, through other blogs ridiculing
her comments. In her home country, Venezuela, the issue became the talk of the town, with the
president, Hugo Chávez,
reconsidering the praise he had previously given her. The
Miss Universe
Organization has replied that "...[her] comments on her
blog were in reference to the hospitality she received while
meeting the members of the U.S.
military and their families who are stationed in
Guantánamo". On 1 April, 2009, the
entry vanished from her blog.